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Glad to see Asuna finally got out of her cage. Doubt she'll be able to do much, but it's better then sitting around and doing nothing, even if she doesnt accomplish anything, it's still something.

In all honesty, I can't see this arc being resolved without some kind of outside force intervention. Yeah, Asuna is out of her cage, Sugou can resolve that quickly. Sure, Kirito is an unstoppable badass in terms of players but Sugou is basically God in ALO. The only way I can see this being resolved in-game is if:

Spoiler for Sugou being stupid:

Sugou accidently rigged the trapped players to be released upon his defeat like in SAO. Which considering his arrogance, he may well have done that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clarste

Having a stupid villain is not a plothole, nor is it a sign of bad writing. He's just... a stupid villain who thinks he's more in control than he is. You don't have to like him (does anyone like him as a villain?), or hate him, or even pity him. He's just stupid. I suppose it might be amusing to speculate what you would do in his situation, although the idea of putting yourself in the shoes of a power-hungry pseudo-rapist is a bit creepy, but the show has given us nothing to indicate that he's a clever villain, and plenty of things to indicate that he's not. So he's not. There we go.

Agreed. Not every villian can be portrayed in a sympathetic light or have some kind of horrible backstory to explain how they are:

Spoiler for For examples:

Nox from Wakfu, or Hansel and Gretel from Black Lagoon.

Not every villian can be the incredible chessmaster/magnificent bastard like:

Spoiler for More examples:

Johan from Monster, or Orihara Izaya from Durarara!

Some villians are just that: Villians. I think what a lot of people have a problem with is that a villian that acts like Sugou, does the things he does, makes the obvious mistakes that he does, like Relentless said, is almost comical, like you'd find in a comedy, and while SAO does have it's funny moments, it's not really a comedy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by don_Durandal

Having a warning system for when Asuna leaves the cage would be of little use if Sugou is asleep or not wearing his amusphere. He is just a human after all; he needs to sleep at some point, and has an important job which means he'll be busy not being in the game or behind a computer most of the time.
It actually looks in the episode like Asuna was waiting for the moment when she knew she could leave without Oberon appearing at some point.

Not sure if it was from inside or outside the game, but in his first appearence as Oberon he recieved an alert and responded to it. I took it as a message from outside the game but I could be wrong.

People seem to forget that this arc is running on a much shorter stretch of time than the Aincrad arc did. There aren't any multi-day jumps in time thus far. Suguha and Kirito have been continuously logged in for something like 10+ hours since they met to leave for the World Tree. A couple episodes ago, when Oberon was last with Asuna, Lyfa logged out to shower and eat and it was early evening. Last episode, Lyfa logged out to check with Recon, and it was late at night. So Asuna leaving her cell just after Salamander was thwarted should work out to something like 2-3 am in the real world.

Nobody seems to forget that from all the posts I've read. But let's set that aside for the moment and address your comment. Yes, the arc is much shorter because of the time limit. However, using your own logic, we have seen Asuna for about SIX MINUTES of the three days Kirito has been logging in. It seems unreasonable to think that only the times we see Asuna have anything going on around her. Nor do we know that Asuna makes her escape attempt during or just after the Salamander situation. You're assuming that because it was shown after that it WAS after, rather than realizing that showing it at any other point would have lowered the tension and energy of what Kirito was doing. It's like assuming that every chapter in a book occurs in sequential order just because they're presented one after the other.

However, using your own logic, we have seen Asuna for about SIX MINUTES of the three days Kirito has been logging in. It seems unreasonable to think that only the times we see Asuna have anything going on around her. Nor do we know that Asuna makes her escape attempt during or just after the Salamander situation. You're assuming that because it was shown after that it WAS after, rather than realizing that showing it at any other point would have lowered the tension and energy of what Kirito was doing. It's like assuming that every chapter in a book occurs in sequential order just because they're presented one after the other.

Actually, I think Kirito has only been logged-in over two days (this is the second day), and it wouldn't surprise me at all if the only times we have seen Asuna are the times when something relevant was happening (because how much relevant stuff could there be when she's trapped in that cage?). I don't think it's likely that he checks up on her multiple times a day just to harass her and that he's done this for two months+, because anyone would tire of that. By now she's probably gotten used to his pattern of behaviour and when he's likely to appear. And also, it does seem reasonable to me to assume that the situation with Asuna is happening in "real time" as it were, because what benefit is there to changing the sequence of events?

So... I guess I'm not really sure where you're going with all this, but I'm assuming Asuna probably made a very-educated guess about her escape time, which is why they didn't show her escaping immediately after she figured out the code. She laid in wait for a while, probably resting up and waiting for the safest time.

This episode easily EASILY had the best fight in the entire show so far for virtue of having neither one hit kills nor one side that was totally overpowering that required some inexplicable exploit to win. Instead for a change you have two evenly matched player characters going at it and Kirito has to use both creativity and go all out to eek out a victory. The battles in this show are probably amongst it's weakest points so I guess it's better late than never.

Incidentally does anyone find it amusing that all the sides Kirito joins seem to be filled with easily reasoned with hawt chicks that are more than ready to welcome him into their clan while whatever side seems to be opposing him seems to be filled with war mongering hostile bishonen assholes that instantly want to kill him upon sight half the time. That's why I kind of found Gene to be a breath of fresh air. While the rule still carries through this episode at least he's an honorable player in the end that sticks to his word and shows respect. It's just too bad he probably earned his status as the games strongest player while Kirito basically inherited his stats from SAO such that you really kind of feel that in any normal situation Gene would have clobbered Kirito pretty handedly.

I especially liked how Kirito was able to figure out a workaround to the Ethereal Shift's mechanics to defend against it. And I especially liked how Eugene's subordinates only had admiration for Kirito's skill after he defeated their leader. It's quite a shift from SAO, and how battles in that game are treated as proper life-and-death situations.

And I especially liked how Eugene's subordinates only had admiration for Kirito's skill after he defeated their leader. It's quite a shift from SAO, and how battles in that game are treated as proper life-and-death situations.

Eugene really seems like a model gamer. He set reasonable conditions for Kirito to "pass," and when Kirito showed he's not weak, he decides he wants a real fight. Also quite graceful with loss, as he didn't rage like some people would. Quite the opposite of Sigurd.

Yea, I believe Eugene knew it was a total bluff, but he got an assist from Kagemura(?) so he could save face in front of his army and brother to leave peacefully.

Enjoyed this section of the arc because it goes through a range of actual mmo player types.

Down to the guy that took the items of his fallen players happily, to Sigurd's power-crazy/status obsesseiveness, to Eugene, and then to his soldiers who just enjoy being able to see awesome fight in a game they enjoy.

You're misunderstanding his motivations. He doesn't want money, or mind control tech, or an arranged marriage with Asuna. Those are all just ways of achieving what he really wants. Which is to be a smug bastard. He likes looking down on people and watching their helplessness. In a phrase, he likes having power over people. Having power over a sleeping girl who can't react isn't any fun.

Kirito was born and survived SAO where it was live or die. He's a totally different beast compared to any players in ALO. If he was the best player in SAO, then he will be godly in ALO. There shouldn't be a single person that is a match unless they have admin cheats...and even then Kirito just breaks the rules Neo style. -especially so since ALO is skill based rather than stat based like SAO was.

Kirito was born and survived SAO where it was live or die. He's a totally different beast compared to any players in ALO. If he was the best player in SAO, then he will be godly in ALO. There shouldn't be a single person that is a match unless they have admin cheats...and even then Kirito just breaks the rules Neo style. -especially so since ALO is skill based rather than stat based like SAO was.

maybe he'll eventually dual wield something like Durandal and Excaliber